This post has been updated.
Noah Bauld, never one to shy away from the big stage, was forced to watch from the sidelines as his teammates celebrated their dramatic win over Harvard last weekend.
With a bit of a chip on his shoulder, the sophomore used the past week in practice leading up to Friday night’s matchup against St. Lawrence wisely, practicing well enough to earn himself a spot back in the lineup.
Bauld took full advantage of the opportunity, recording a hat trick against St. Lawrence to power No. 6/5 Cornell men’s hockey’s 6-1 de-canonization of the Saints to improve to 7-0 on the year.
“I used it as a little bit of motivation,” Bauld said of the emotions that came with sitting out against Harvard. “We’ve got a deep lineup this year so I have to work for everything that I can get.”
“It obviously shows he doesn’t want to come out of the lineup again,” head coach Mike Schafer ’86 added of his sophomore forward’s performance Friday night.
Despite Bauld’s first career hat trick, members of the Lynah Faithful got to keep their hats on a chilly Ithaca evening. Cornell’s sixth goal at the 17:40 mark of the third period was initially credited to senior forward Trevor Yates, but a scoring change eventually credited the tally to Bauld for his third of the night.
Boris Tsang / Staff Photographer
Playing against a depleted St. Lawrence team Friday night, Cornell dominated.
“[Bauld] was playing solid [previously] but we wanted him to take that extra step as a player and play with confidence offensively and bring pucks to the net and finish,” Schafer said. “I thought he was solid in all areas of the ice tonight.”
Cornell did what it was supposed to do against an injury-depleted 1-10-1 St. Lawrence team playing with 11 forwards — one of which was a call-up from the school’s club team — eventually overpowering the Saints to finish with a 46-16 shots on goal advantage.
But the win came after some close back-and-forth play to start the contest, which was followed by the Red taking control midway through the first period and never looking back. In the first two periods, the Red scored in pairs to take a commanding lead heading into the third.
“We didn’t have any prolonged time in our own zone tonight, which will keep them fresh [Saturday] night,” Schafer said of his team’s control all game.
Bauld’s game-opening tally — his first goal of the season — came off a wraparound backhand past St. Lawrence goaltender Arthur Brey, which followed a flurry of shots and scoring opportunities from the Red. Freshman forward Morgan Barron doubled the lead only eight seconds later, improving his career-opening points streak to seven games.
“He obviously came out with a vengeance tonight,” Schafer said of Bauld. “The first goal that he scored was exactly what we talked about: bringing pucks to the net against this team and he was persistent all game. He was determined of how hard he was going to play.”
Seconds later, the Red saw another set of scoring opportunities after going on its first of six power plays at the 11:49 mark of the first and peppering Brey with shots. The Red outshot the Saints, 21-5, in the opening act and did not let up, outshooting St. Lawrence by a margin of 30 by the final horn.
Cameron Pollack / Sun Photography Editor
Cornell peppered St. Lawrence’s Arthur Brey with an impressive 46 shots Friday night.
The Red’s second-period pressure paid off with a goal from junior blueliner Brendan Smith 15:59 into the period, followed by Bauld’s second of the night — a forehand wraparound goal this time — just 1:06 later. The second pair of goals gave Cornell a four-goal cushion heading into the second intermission.
“I just came in, stuck to the same gameplan as I always do, and got some lucky bounces,” Bauld said.
Junior forward Anthony Angello recorded his second goal of the season and Cornell’s fifth of the game 13:56 into the third period, only to be followed up by Bauld’s eventual hat trick-securing tally.
Freshman goaltender Matt Galajda, though not tested heavily, did the job between the pipes with 15 saves, including a big stop on a Saints breakaway in the second period with his team leading 2-0. He maintained a shutout until the Saints scored on the power play 16:36 into the third.
Now, Cornell will look to carry its momentum created in a dominating performance forward into a matchup of top-10 teams at Lynah Saturday night. Cornell and No. 8/7 Clarkson last faced off in an invigorating three-game ECAC quarterfinals series at Lynah last season.
“We know that game is going to be extremely competitive [Saturday] night,” Schafer said. “They’ve got some great players. Our [ECAC playoff] series here last year was great against them, so it should be an exciting night.”
The Red takes on the only other remaining team undefeated in ECAC play in a pivotal ECAC matchup at 7 p.m. Saturday.